JPMorgan to Occupy Bank Tower at World Trade Center Site

JPMorgan Chase plans to move its investment bank to a new tower at the office complex to be built on the World Trade Center site, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government agency that controls the site, said in April that it was negotiating with the No. 3 U.S. banking group about building an office tower just south of the complex that was destroyed on September 11, 2001.

New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer alerted reporters in an advisory that he was holding a news conference on Thursday about a "major economic development announcement."

JPMorgan declined to comment on the agreement to build the tower, initially reported by the Wall Street Journal on its Web site. Officials from Spitzer's offices and the Port Authority could not immediately be reached for comment.

Previous reports had identified the former Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero as the probable site of a new JPMorgan building.

JPMorgan's world headquarters would remain at its current site at 270 Park Avenue, the source said.

An agreement to move JPMorgan's investment bank, which employs 6,000 people in New York City, would be a latest sign of progress in the quest to redevelop the site near Ground Zero, which has proceeded in fits and starts since the September 11 attacks.

Last month, seven insurers agreed to pay an additional $2 billion to the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein to resolve all outstanding claims from the attacks, a move that was expected to speed redevelopment of the site.